Sharing Life's Lessons on Living in this World and yet being Above it!

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Wednesday, June 12, 2013

Get out of your own way!

There are timesin Life when nothing will go your way.There
will be so much unsaid, so much unresolved. And it may just seem like everything
is wrong about your Life. Every effort you make, each step you take, you will
be stonewalled, tripped or pushed to a corner. The mind will invite you to
despair. Decline that invitation artfully and let Life lead you. You get out of
your own way!

Relax. Get
yourself a cup of tea or grab a drink if you can. The mind is like a tennis-ball
practice machine. It keeps spewing out worries and fears endlessly. These
debilitating thoughts will tell you that you can and must solve the problems that
face you just now. But what if you have already tried all that you can think up
of. And failed. And the problems persist. The very thought that there’s no way
forward may force you to allow your fears to take hold of you. Please don’t let
them. Your fearing something is not going to take that something away. Life is
to be faced. Not feared. So, let Life happen as it has been and as it is happening.
These are times when accepting that there’s no choice is an intelligent choice
in itself. Exercise it.

I recently met the CEO of one of India’s leading retail brands.
He shared with me how, about 15 years ago, a vindictive police officer,
illegitimately and extra-constitutionally shut down all his stores and threw
him in jail, where he had to spend 89 days. “There seemed no way out. This man
had cases foisted against me under every provision of the law. It was a legal
maze. And with our business shut down, cash was just not available. My family
tried to mobilize something, both financially and legally, but it took three
months. I was very clear that he could take away everything from me. But he
couldn’t take away my spirit. I refused to give up because my conscience was
clean. We had not done anything wrong and were simply a victim of circumstance
and time,” he said. After a protracted legal battle that took a few years, this
CEO was acquitted with a clean chit, has since rebuilt his business and his
brand is one of India’s most admired. He told me, as I took leave of him, “Some
nights are long and dark. But if it is night, know for sure that a dawn will
follow!”

When we try
to solve some of our problems and don’t meet with much success, intelligence
lies in letting go, letting Life take over, and getting out of our own way. The
truth is that Life has always been flowing on its own. You and I have done precious
little to make our lives happen. Getting out of your own way is not inaction.
In fact, it is a more sensible action than to be perpetually frustrated and
fearful! When you get out of your own way, you can see the way that Life has
laid out for you clearly! And that way, always, takes you to where you must
eventually arrive!